Am 28.05.2009 um 19:34 schrieb Helge Kreutzmann:
> I recently got an RC bug (#530653) which turned out to be a change
> in dpkg's update-alternative (the string and output channel of an
> error message was changed which is used in the preinst). So I
> prepared a new package, but this of course will only work with the
> dpkg in unstable (not the one currently in testing nor (old)stable).
>
> To allow (partial) updates I think the proper way would be to depend
> on dpkg (>= 1.15.0) until Squeeze is released.
>
> I read debian-policy and I think I'm right. But given this is in the
> preinst I would like to confirm that in this case not one of the other
> options (Pre-Depends, Conflicts, Breaks) is more suitable.
I don't know why this preinst script is necessary, but if you need to
insure that the new update-alternatives script is run in it, you have to
use Pre-Depends rather than Depends. See Policy § 7.2.
AFAIK on the buildds packages are unpacked by the host system's dpkg
which will be the stable version, so a Pre-Dependency on an unstable
dpkg is frowned upon.
Sven